GTA: Online (X360)

It has been just over half a year since its launch, has GTAO matured in that time?

That is the question, and it is a pretty major one. I reviewed GTA5 a while back, including GTAO, but I think it is worthy of its own dedicated review, since it does have alot to offer over its singleplayer sibling.
The game is set about 2 months before the events of GTA5, and thus, you meet many of the familiar characters that you know, and invariably either love or hate. There is a storyline, albeit a bit here and there, and missions pop up on your phone, both for you to host, and ones that other players have accepted and invited people to. It gives the sense that teamwork is important, and it usually is. The missions reward well if you have enough of you who are good enough and get the missions done quickly, otherwise it takes ages to earn megabucks. A while back, hackers discovered a way to mod the bounty system to give themselves and every one else literally billions of GTA dollars. That has since been fixed, but it has dented the value of the early missions, and of the bounties, which top out at 10k. (although the bounty that you claim is 9k since 1k goes to Lester) The free roam, if you go into a public lobby, is sometimes chaotic. Every time two unknown players are near eachother, its like a typical wild west standoff, and at some point, both players (or more) are going to start shooting. Or perhaps a tank will appear and send both running. Oh, yeah, many players (myself included) have tanks. You would not know how scary that is, until one rounds the corner and decides it wants to take shots at you. The gameplay modes on offer are varied and the weapons on offer are well balanced, no one gun is better than the others. My major gripe with it however, is the system it uses to launch games, which can be finicky at times, and a severe annoyance if you join just as the game launches.
If you are a fan of open world games, third person shooters, and GTA, then if you have not already played it, do so.I would give it an 8.5/10, referencing the original review and the progress the developers have made fixing it.